Takeaways from the Clash: Concussion testing isn't really mandatory

Welcome to the 2017 season and welcome back to our post-race takeaways column. Per usual, we’ll have some random thoughts to espouse after Cup Series races and this column will be the landing spot for them. Let’s go through what we learned during Sunday’s Clash.

• We discovered Sunday during the Advance Auto Parts Clash that NASCAR’s new concussion testing policy isn’t mandatory for all drivers that make trips to the infield care center.

NASCAR announced this week that it had instituted a standard concussion test for drivers who head to the infield care center after crashing. But after Kurt Busch became the first NASCAR driver to crash in 2017 after his car went head-on into the wall, Busch exited the care center without a concussion test.

[Related: Joey Logano wins Clash as drivers ahead of him make contact]

Why? The test will only be applied when medical personnel in the care center believe a driver has sustained a head injury and doctors apparently felt Busch hadn’t suffered one. It was a departure from a widespread interpretation of NASCAR’s release, which made it seem that all drivers who entered the care center because of a crash would be tested.

Using discretion when it comes to allegedly mandatory concussion testing is a slippery slope, especially when a driver who crashes head on into a wall at over 180 MPH is immediately deemed to be fine.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s lengthy absence from the Cup Series in 2016 because of concussions has become a symbol of the trickiness of head injuries and the way protocols and treatment can adapt to fit concussions and their symptoms.

And it stood to reason that NASCAR’s new standard concussion testing coupled with mandatory trips to the infield care center for all drivers with crashed cars could have helped immediately discover Junior’s concussion at Michigan last summer.

Based off what we saw Sunday, that’s far from a guarantee. If Junior visited the care center after his Michigan wreck and medical personnel didn’t suspect any issue, he wouldn’t have been examined for a head injury. Because Junior drove back to the garage after his Michigan crash, he didn’t make a trip to the care center.

The SCAT-3 concussion test takes approximately 15 minutes, therefore prolonging the stay for a driver who would normally be discharged immediately. And while 15 minutes is time-consuming for a driver who is fine and for the media waiting outside the care center for interviews, it’s well worth it in the long run if testing catches even one concussion that might have gone unnoticed.

If NASCAR wants to say it is committed to keeping its drivers’ brains healthy it needs to back up its big statements with big actions.

• Busch ended up in the wall thanks to Jimmie Johnson’s car snapping loose. That was one of two incidents Johnson had with a tricky car coming off turn 4 during the Clash. The second time Johnson’s car went sideways off turn 4, he ended up in the inside wall.

“It’s bizarre because it drove really good everywhere else, then off of 4 the first time I had a handling problem was when it broke free and I got into [Busch] and then after that it was really loose,” Johnson said. “After that caution and the last long stretch before I crashed again. Just off of turn 4. The sun certainly sits on that edge of the track a little bit harder than anywhere else. We will take some notes and learn from those mistakes and apply that to the 500 car.”

The incidents were reminiscent of what happened to Hendrick Motorsports teammates Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Chase Elliott off turn 4 in the 2016 Daytona 500. Both drivers saw their races end early because of loose cars that turned into crashed cars. And Elliott had a finicky car off the corner during the Clash on Sunday too.

“We haven’t talked about it leading into this<” Johnson said. “I saw Chase really loose a couple of times off of 4. We will definitely be aware of it now, but it’s not anything that we planned on having to fight while we were out here.”

• Kyle Larson’s Clash ended early because his team had too many crew members over the wall fixing minor damage from an incident with Martin Truex Jr. As part of NASCAR’s new rules for damaged cars, a team is forced to park a car if more crew members than the allowable limit attempt to fix a car on pit road.

At least Larson’s team learned that lesson during the Clash and not the Daytona 500.

“It is an odd way to be done I guess,” Larson said. “But this race doesn’t matter for points.”

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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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